


copper and iron

by myriddin



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: F/M, Murder, Staged Suicide, Stuff you expect from the Faceless Men basically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-01
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-06-05 15:06:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6709795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myriddin/pseuds/myriddin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jaqen H'ghar's interest is caught by a different Stark daughter. Starks, Lannisters, and the realm itself changes as a result.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The man first notices the lady during the nameday celebration for the golden monster, when she saved the life of the drunken fool. He watches the way she manipulates the monster, playing on his pride. Her technique is clumsy and unpracticed, but she shows promise, and he makes a note to find out more about her. 

During the Blackwater battle, the lady showed her inner steel, demanding a maester be fetched and saving the Lannister boy’s life. The man is even more intrigued. 

He shadowed the lady back to her chambers, was prepared to slip his knife between the hound’s ribs when he held a blade to the lady’s throat. Then a rare sense of amazement fills the man when the lady soothed the beast with a song, even as she trembled with fear and trepidation. The hound left with his life, and the man made his decision. 

Three lives saved. Three deaths he had to offer in return. 

He followed the drunken fool and discovers he reports back to the mockingbird. Even rarer than surprise, a spark of anger lights within the man at the fool’s betrayal. Still, the fool have a pathetic quality about him, and the man administers the gift quickly and cleanly. He wears the fool’s face to meet the lady and mockingbird both, he learns of the lady’s pains and the mockingbird’s plans, and he carefully crafts his list. His lips curl into a smile when he realizes there is a plan in motion already to end the golden monster. It will not be so difficult to narrow down to three, after all. 

The monster grows bored, and calls for gladiatorial matches disguised as a melee. A Lorathi sellsword by name of Jaqen H’ghar goes up against Ser Meryn Trant and beats the Kingsguard soundly. The monster is displeased when the man refuses to make the match to the death, but Trant does not have the same reservations. The man has no choice but to defend himself. Ser Meryn does not survive. 

Ser Boros Blount falls while riding and is subsequently trampled by his horse. There are few who truly mourn him. 

The mourning bells rang for days when Cersei Lannister reportedly threw herself from Maegor’s Holdfast. Some whispered that the poor woman had never recovered from the loss of her kingly husband, while the more licentious maintained the Queen Regent despaired of her twin’s likely death, and couldn’t bear to live without her lover and brother. 

The old lion tightened his hold on his family and the city, ordering his imp son to take the lady and return to Casterly Rock. When they ready to leave the city, a Kettleblack attempts to abduct the lady. Jaqen H’ghar saves the lady and the imp offers him a position in his guard. Evidence is presented to the old lion that it was the mockingbird masterminding the attempted kidnapping. The mockingbird is confined to the black cells. The Kettleback is never seen again. 

The imp’s company meets his brother and a woman warrior on the road. The woman warrior swears an oath of fealty and protection to the lady. The man judges her character to be true, and decides he can trust her with the lady. 

The woman warrior is standing guard that night as he comes to the lady’s tent. He has no wish to frighten the lady and he keeps his distance after slipping inside. The lady is startled but not afraid, she remembers he saved her life. The man pressed an iron coin in the lady’s hand and requests a single boon. The lady consents and the man presses a gentle kiss to her lips. The lady whispers that he tastes of copper. 

The monster does not survive his wedding feast and the mockingbird is found guilty of arranging his poisoning. The mockingbird is swiftly executed. The man’s contract is fulfilled. 

(The old lion dies of burst belly after the viper leaves the city with the pickled head of the mountain, and the man appreciates the viper’s smooth handling of his craft)

Jaqen H’ghar disappears and another takes his place. And even with a new face, the man cannot forget his lady.


	2. Chapter 2

The man cannot forget his lady, but he knows his duty, has known since the day he was chosen to serve the Many-Faced God. Still, when a certain coin is placed in the hand of a Braavosi sailor in White Harbor, he finishes his mission in Oldtown with haste, and swiftly making his way northward.  

Another monster was haunting his lady's life, presuming to occupy her home and title. The man checked in on his lady, safe under the protection of the Manderly and the woman warrior's watchful eye. He listened to the plans and schemes, found himself admiring the fat lord's sharp mind. Behind closed doors, there were stories abound of broken guest-right and murder, of a wolf king and his loyal men being killed by the flaying monster's ministrations. The old betrayer would get his due in the end, what the man's focus fell on was the flaying man and the monster he had sired.

The elderly sexton who cared for New Castle’s private sept passed peacefully in his sleep- delaying the discovery of his body by a few days allowed the man to borrow his craggy old face one evening when the lady came to pray.

Tears streamed from her eyes as she knelt before the Mother, stirring something inside him he thought had died years ago when he had been reborn as No One. He silently limped over to light the candles closest to her.

"Do you think it is still sinful to wish for another's death when they have committed great evil...when they have proven themselves a monster?" She questioned softly, eyes fixed on the statue before her for such a prolonged moment he first thought she was she was only musing aloud, but then she turned an expectant gaze in his direction.

He mulled thoughtfully over the matter, using the long brass candlelighter as a makeshift cane as he shuffled a little closer. "I think the sin, m'lady, lies in knowing what a monster is capable of and doing nothing to stop it."

The lady nodded thoughtfully, quietly thanking him and turning away to make her leave. He reached out to gently place a hand against her arm. She stopped, the woman warrior shifting and tightening her grip on her sword-hilt. The lady held up a hand to calm her and turned back to him with an expectant arch of her brow.

"All monsters can be put down, my lady.  If it is wished so.” He gave her a gentle smile, surreptitiously slipping a familiar iron coin into her palm beyond the notice of the lady’s watching guardian. The lady’s eyes snapped to his, studying his face with a calculating scrutiny his placid expression never gave into. Whatever she might have found there, her eyes in turn did not give away.

“We really should be going, Your Grace,” the woman warrior interrupted. The man internally agreed, dipping his head respectfully and making his way back toward the candles, his limp conspicuously absent only to his lady’s notice.      

++   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Winterfell was back in Stark hands, the Bastard of Bolton a victim of his own savagery as his starving hounds tore him apart at the first scent of his monstrous blood.

Many brave men fought in the retaking of the castle, but no one was quite certain who was responsible for locking Ramsay in the kennel with his hounds. The new Lady of Winterfell mused on the mystery as Brienne escorted her to the victory feast organized by Lord Manderly, occupying her mind through generous courses and turns on the makeshift dancefloor at the center of the Great Hall. There is one particular dance partner that captures and holds her attention, a plain-faced, genial young man nimble on his feet and charming enough to draw a smile and even a laugh from her lips.

Still, despite his charm and lissome, it was his eyes that captured her, sharp as a knife’s edge. And later when he appeared again from the shadows later that night in her chambers, it was because of those eyes that she felt no fear. The face was different, but the eyes were the same. As fantastical as it may seem, she recognized this man, and her hand flew to her breast, where a certain iron coin rested in her bodice.

His kiss still tasted of copper.


End file.
